What Was That?
by DarkLeia
Summary: One Shot. Han and Leia. Light and Dark. Desperation and Emotion. It's a love story. I swear.


Just a little something I whipped up this afternoon. It felt all romantic-y, but with hidden undertones. It's fluffy and, yet, not. I didn't think about it, I just wrote it and posted it a few minutes later. It's a One Shot. I don't write many of those, but hopefully you'll enjoy this one.

 **What Was That?**

By DarkLeia

2/14/17

Dark. The background of their lives was dark. The walls surrounding them were that of ships, military bases, and hiding places. Grungy cities, rundown buildings, and dusty dirtholes where less than legal activities were usual business.

The few bright points came from other sources. A smile. A wink. A moment of subtle warmth passing between the hardened shell of their hearts. The pure fire behind their eyes was sometimes fueled by something more than the lust for freedom of the galaxy.

Han was sure she felt it the same way he did. The intoxicating headiness was powerful enough to bring a less strong man to his knees to beg for the allowance to worship her. Solo would not beg.

Worship was another thing entirely.

Princess Leia was everything light and everything good. She brought secret joy to his soul in a way he had never experienced. He was perpetually amazed at her rooted determination and inner strength to lead an army directly towards her goals. He had to admit that Leia's quick strategic brilliance rivalled his own as did her sharp wit. She was the full package. A thinking man's full bucket list and a shallow man's top hit list of beauty.

Yes, she was the only true light in his heart that never failed to make him stumble around her. His usual easy charm was impotent around her. She frustrated any efforts he made and he had a way of ending up in a fool's folly in her presence.

Her confoundedness only made him long all the more to hold her and hear her whisper her true feelings for him.

Here they were in another grunge pit of hellhole making another deal with the darlings of the black market underworld. _She doesn't belong in a place like this_ , he thought. He did. He wished he didn't, but facts were facts. Once a gutter runner, always a gutter runner. Not that he made a point to act the part these days. It's just something he knew would never fully leave him.

It's also precisely why he knew he had to be the one to protect her in places like these. She stood away from him talking in hushed tones. She wasn't so far that he couldn't hear, but just far enough for him to be able to keep a watchful eye for traps or any other trouble that tended to follow her and her ambitions around. At this distance he could react defensively and still grab her if necessary.

It wasn't his first time, he knew what he was doing.

Of course, none of that accounted for the weather on this system. Recent unscrupulous activity of the inhabitants had been messing with the ecosystems and the weather was as close to unpredictable as it could be. At this point, no weather controls could handle the magnitude of this mostly used up world and nor could it measure it with any certainty from day-to-day.

Although Solo liked to put forth a sense of optimism, situations as uncontrollable as these were difficult at best. Good thing 'difficult' was his specialty. His attention refocused on Leia for a moment. Difficult was definitely an apt word for Her Highnessness. Still, a smile from her and he was ridiculously happy to argue with himself that it was worth it. 'It' being whatever she was putting him through at any given moment. Unfortunately, Chewie never let him live it down when he caught those stupid stars dancing in his eyes after he had been rewarded with one of her true smiles.

Worth. It. Always.

Business concluded, the Princess nodded quickly to Solo. Gently taking her elbow, he guided her to his best guessed route out of there and back to the hidden Falcon. They rarely talked on these jaunts because they both were a wary sort and knew the best way to blend into the atmosphere was to do as quiet-like as possible. With them, talking led to arguing and arguing led to shouting and shouting led to unwanted attention. So it was traps shut, eyes open and heads down.

He guessed they were about halfway there when the warning siren went off. Han and Leia looked at each other in their own silent alarm. Neither had any idea what the siren meant, but Han wasn't waiting around to find out. He grabbed her hand and they began running at top speed. That's when they heard a few frightened cries of the scrambling beings shutting themselves into the various hidden storm shelters nearby.

"Take cover! Take cover!"

Between the few large buildings to their left, they glimpsed several massive dark clouds of spinning and raging. The thundering of the rampant rage was becoming deafening to their ears. With no idea where to turn and seeing the last of the storm shelter doors lock them out, they both let go and spun in a circle desperate for ideas.

"There!" Leia pointed to an unlocked door in a large building a few meters away.

Solo didn't argue as he followed her to the door and was grateful that it slid open. He was less grateful when he saw the ceiling was mostly open air. No wonder nobody had run in there for shelter.

He gripped her hand again because he had never feared for both of their safety like this ever before. This wasn't something they could outwit, outrun or outgun. This massive storm was about to kill them. She pulled on his hand and shouted at him although he could barely hear her.

"Han! Stairs!"

"Let's hope they go down."

While the stairway was open to the ceiling, but it also had a down option. They flew down them recklessly. They were able to get maybe six or seven floors down when Han pushed the Princess down into the corner of the landing and then crouched down to cover her.

It was bad. Very bad.

Leia pinched her body away from the corner to pull him in closer and share it with him.

"This is no time for heroics, Captain."

"Hey, I love you, so it's the perfect time." The storm began to bring the full brunt of its angry force upon them, so naturally he picked the last few moments of their lives to admit his love for her.

"I love you, too, but there's room for both of us."

Despite the dire circumstances, their exchange sounded more like an admission of close friendship than heart pounding love. He wasn't in the habit of telling anyone he loved them, but he didn't think this weak sounding version of it was possible.

He placed his palms on her cheeks and made a point to look into her eyes.

"No. Listen to me. Leia, I _love_ you."

This time, it registered. He watched the dawning in her eyes for a moment before crushing his mouth to hers. If they were going to die, this was the way they were going out. The storm above raged and spun in its deadly hunt around them as they lost themselves in their mutual released passion.

Refusing to let go, their mouths stayed locked together. Han could feel her love and passion washing over and through him. He gave everything he had to be open and return the emotions. He wanted her to have everything of him even if it was just for the last few moments before they would perish.

He wished with every fiber of his being he could've protected her from this somehow. At this point, all he could do is force the storm to go through him to get to her and maybe, just maybe, it would move on before taking her life as well.

And then, as suddenly as it had come, the storm has dissipated and died down into gentle quiet rain softly pattering on the stairway. It was as if someone had balled up the ire in the atmosphere and absorbed it leaving only the sweetness of a cleansing rainfall behind.

Their lips broke apart with longing still in them, but they looked upward in wonder.

"What was that?"

"That, Your Worship," His eyes caught hers once again, "…was one helluva kiss."

xxxmtfbwyxxx

Happy Valentine's Day to all my fellow Han/Leia fans! May the Hearts and Force be With You!


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